


Multiplicities

by izayoi_no_mikoto



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Nonnies Made Me Do It, POV First Person, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-06 10:30:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13409355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izayoi_no_mikoto/pseuds/izayoi_no_mikoto
Summary: A mission goes horribly wrong, and only five of them make it back.





	Multiplicities

<Rachel's here,> Tobias reported, and a few seconds later, a bald eagle flapped into the barn.  She landed awkwardly upon a bale of hay, wings flaring to keep her balance, and then she started demorphing.

"Rachel," Cassie said softly.  "We were starting to worry."  
  
Rachel was still a growing bundle of feathers, blond hair, and stretching body parts when Tobias came swooping in.  He wasted no time.  <We can't just _leave_ him there, > he said hotly, feathers puffed out.  
  
<He’s right,> Rachel agreed, and then she got her lips and mouth back.  "We need to go back," she continued aloud, glaring at me with what were still fierce eagle eyes.  "One way or another."  
  
_One way or another._ I pressed my fingers to my temples and tried to think.  
  
"We have bigger issues," Marco snapped.  His face was pale.  "They've _got_ him, okay?  The Yeerks have him.  Either he cut his own throat or he's got a slug in his head, and we'd better hope it's the first because if not, we're _all_ dead."  
  
Cassie shook her head.  "We don't know for sure that they have him," she said.  "We know that we got split up, we know that he got left behind, but we don't know if they have him.  He might have morphed something small and escaped notice.  He might be hiding."  
  
"Or he might be a Controller," Rachel snapped.  She was fully human by now, but she paced back and forth like she wanted nothing more than to morph grizzly and go charging in.  "In which case we can't just leave him.  One Visser with the ability to morph is one too many.  Either have to free him or--"  
  
" _Rachel_ ," Cassie said reproachfully.  
  
"We can't assume he's okay," Marco argued.  "We can't assume we can save him.  We have to assume the worst, and the worst possible situation is that he's a Controller and that they know everything.  _Everything_ , okay?  Who we are, where we live, who our families are.  That the Andalites _aren't here_ , and that the only thing standing between the Yeerks and domination of the entire Earth is a ragtag group of human kids."  
  
Tobias' head cocked to the side.  <Guys.>  
  
"There are bigger priorities than him," Marco pressed on.  "Bigger than any one of us.  We need to survive.  If the Yeerks know who we are, we need to take our families and _go_."  He whirled on me.  "If they've got him, we're all in danger.  They'll come for the rest of us.  And if they get the rest of us, humanity is toast.  Jake, they'll tell your brother and the next time you go home--"  
  
"You don't need to tell me," I replied, my voice low.  "I know what Tom will do."  
  
<Guys!> Tobias shouted.  <He's-->  
  
And then the door blew open, and Ax came barging into the barn in full Andalite glory.

"Ax!" I exclaimed.  
  
<He's okay,> Tobias finished.  
  
For a certain definition of _okay_ , maybe.  Ax's sides were sweat-slicked and heaving, and his eye-stalks and tail both drooped with exhaustion.  But he was alive and not visibly wounded and, most importantly, _not_ in the hands of the Yeerks, and a sigh of relief escaped me before I could stop it.  
  
Marco beamed at him.  "Ax, my man, you got out!"  
  
"Are you okay?" Cassie asked.  
  
<Yes,> Ax replied. <I am well.  I got out.>  
  
I stared at him, suspicion blooming in my gut.  "Ax," I said.  
  
<Yes?>  
  
I didn't say anything for a moment.  I glanced instead at Tobias, tipped my head slightly.  He stared back at me, his hawk gaze sharp and pitiless.  <Jake,> he said, but then he deflated, and there was surrender in his thought-speak.  <Fine.>  
  
He fluttered out the barn window and into the sky.  
  
I turned my attention back to the alien in our midst.  "Ax," I said, "I'm glad you're back, believe me.  But you know what we have to do, right?"  
  
"Jake?"  Marco asked.  He crossed his arms.  "Are you serious?"  
  
"He was among the Yeerks," Rachel said.  Her voice was hard, her gaze harder.  "Alone.  Without any of us there.  And he just _somehow_ managed to escape?"  
  
"We'll need to keep you somewhere for three days," I said, as though the thought alone didn't make my stomach curdle.  We'd been through this before, with Temrash 114 in my head; I didn't want us to have to do it again.  But we didn't have a choice.  "Just in case."  
  
<Of course,> Ax said, and took a step forward.  <I understand.>  
  
Exactly what Ax would say.  
  
Exactly what a Controller would say.  
  
I took a deep breath, and then I nodded.  "Okay, then," I said, and turned to Cassie.  "Where can we keep him?  We can't let your parents stumble onto him, we need to be able to keep him from going anywhere, and someone needs to keep an eye on him at--"  
  
<Guys!> Tobias yelled.  <Incoming! It's-->  
  
And for the second time, a streak of blue charged into the barn.  
  
My thoughts raced; my instincts moved even faster.  "Battle morphs!" I shouted, lunging away, and already I could feel the muscle mass piling on, my tailbone elongating, my teeth sharpening.  There were only two living Andalites on Earth.  If the one already here was Ax, then the one who'd just arrived was--  
  
<Prince Jake!> the second Andalite shouted.  
  
I didn't stop morphing, but I froze.  Stared at him even as my vision shifted from human to tiger.  It was Ax.  
  
There were two Axes.  
  
<I apologize, Prince Jake,> Ax said.  If he'd had a mouth, he would have been panting.  His eye-stalks twisted to stare at the other Andalite. <It's-->  
  
He didn't need to say who it was.  We all knew.  
  
_Stupid, Jake_ , a voice snarled in the back of my mind.  _Visser Three can **morph**._  
  
The first Ax looked at me, his eyes narrowed slyly in an expression I'd never seen on his face before.   <Well,> he said.  <It looks like today is full of surprises for everyone.  But this is the last time you'll catch me by surprise.>  
  
His tail swung, and I leapt forward with a roar.

**Author's Note:**

> (Inspired by the prompt: 100 words of axes)


End file.
